5 June 2008

Another lovely day. The children from the other group (German expatriates living in Singapore) got up early for a game or two of beach soccer.

The kids from the other group playing under the morning sun.

Rising earlier, I went to the bonfire site for a better view. I savoured the lovely sea breeze that was blowing. The air was exceptionally fresh on such a secluded island.

The mast that the other group erected my their bonfire

The powdery sand on the beach was a joy to walk on. Soft and warm, I would almost suspect there would be medical benefits just walking on along the beach.

My shadow and I

As I walked along, I noticed some fast moving things heading toward the waters. I took a closer look and spotted a number of well-camouflaged crabs.

Can you see the crab?

The lone island on the horizon is Pulau Lang, where we took our first dive. We would return there for a few more dives.

Pulau Lang

Heading towards the jetty, the morning sun has already risen mid-way, allowing for a silhouette shot.

A Tropical Sunrise

Breakfast was served. The al fresco dining area definitely has its charm, with powdery sand on the table and bench top and all. It is nice in the morning when the sun is nice and soothing. The only grouse is the uneven ground which allowed a lot of rocking of the table setting. Because of that we returned to the deck where the tables were more steady.

Some of the German expatriates group on the same ferry

The little ones weren't in Dayang to dive, so they carried on with their own fun.

Super Girl~!

A teen couple made use of the picturesque place for a romantic walk.

A romantic walk on the beach

Once we were done with our breakfast, it was the dive-eat-dive-eat routine once again as we headed out to our dive boat.

The jetty with clear waters underneath

As before, we geared up quickly for the dive.

Gearing up for the dive

Just before our dive destination. My guess: the islands here were formed by volcanic actions from long time ago.

Lovely greenery

The first dive of the day was at Telok Jawa. This was the last dive for the PADI Open Water Diver Certification. We managed to spot plenty of marine life as well. Sea star, puffer fish, garoupa, clown fish, nudibranch, squirrel clown fish, butterfly fish, christmas tree, clams carpet anemone, crown of thorns were just some of the highlights. The draw of diving must have always been the ability to witness these colourful creatures in their natural ecosystem. 45 minutes underwater just seems insufficient to fully appreciate this unique environment.

Right after lunch, we proceeded to our PADI Adventure Diver knowledge reviews and returned to the boat for our first advanced/adventure dive. PADI Adventure Diver Certification is definitely something I would recommend as it allows for the recreational diver to try out more diving techniques and also to dive deeper. But first, we would work on our peak performance buoyancy. Simply, this is important for divers as it helps to conserve energy that might have been wasted to maintain at a certain depth. It is also something that is pretty hard to master for novice divers like us.

The third dive of the day was supposed to be for underwater navigation. Unfortunately, the currents were too strong for the navigation course to be carried out and it was converted to somewhat a drift dive where we tried to ride the currents. Unfortunately, we didn't last very long underwater and surfaced only after 29 minutes. Then we returned to shore for rest, food, water and debrief.

Being a busybody, I peeped over to see what the group of youngsters were doing...

T-shirt painting by the kids from the German group

This time, it's t-shirt painting. Hmm... I wonder what they'll do next?

The night dive was one of the requirements for this certification. Diving in darkness definitely poses additional risks. Yet it is also exciting as you never know what you might spot at night. Our instructors ran through a detailed review on the aspects of a night dive and handed us an underwater torch each before boarding our boat.

Once we in the water, it really wasn't that bad. Fellow divers were still rather visible with their torches switched on. Desmond then led us around and then stopped at one point and instructed for us to turn off the torches to experience the darkness for confidence building. After that we carried on our tour of the seabed. I guess we were led along barren areas for the safety of both the divers and the environment as we didn't really spot any interesting marine life, except for maybe a sea urchin. We had to end the night dive because our torches ran out of batteries and my buddy and I separated.

Once we surfaced, we were greeted by the stars. It was really tempting to just float there in the water and stare into the night sky. It was just like we were floating in space. Still we reluctantly boarded the boat and returned to shore to wash up and rest for the night. We would dive before breakfast the next day to beat the influx of divers that would arrive on the island.